LOCAL history guru Jim Campbell feels the book he launched two weeks ago will not be the end of the Pindar story.

Jim spent several years piecing together 'Pindar-the complete works of Peter Leslie' which was launched at the Jennie Lee Library but he told Cowdenbeath Rotary Club on Thursday that he was sure there was more to come.

The book was all about the life and poems of Peter Leslie, who developed his poetry talents while serving abroad in the Army.

John Pindar was the pen name used by Peter and he was to write hundreds of poems, the vast majority about Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath matters, but others commenting on national issues.

Said Jim: "The thing about Peter Leslie was that as a ten year-old he was sent down one of the Lochgelly pits earning six pence a day but by the time he had entered his teens he could write and he started to pen poems soon after.

"When he decided that mining was no longer for him he joined the Army and it was then that his pen moved into overdrive and he regularly sent poems home which were published in the Lochgelly Times.

"He wrote a massive number of poems, and I came across so many while doing research of the Lochgelly Times archives."

It was at that stage that he decided that the works of Pindar should be preserved and that was why he put together the book which has been launched.

But he added: "Peter Leslie was buried in Auchterderran Kirk Yard where later a memorial was erected in his memory by the Rev A M Houston, then in 1946 it was reported in the Times that contact had been made with Mr Harry Baxter, from Lumphinnans Road, a nephew of Peter Leslie, to make arrangements for articles and poems written by the former soldier to be deposited in Edinburgh Castle Museum, so it could be that relatives of Peter still lie in Lochgelly.

"So it could be that the Pindar story may have a bit to run yet."

Jim concluded by saying that the remarkable thing about the Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly was the number of poets that the area has produced over the past 150 years was amazing and that people from the area were still writing poetry and sending it into the local paper.

He said: "One of Cowdenbeath's own poets was Ben Giraldis and he had many poems published in the Times and now I notice his son Manuel has had some published.

"It could be that the area could be known as the Land of Poets. It could be my next project!"